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A Troll in Central Park
A Troll in Central Park (also known as Stanley's Magic Garden) is a 1994 animated feature-length film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, creators of films such as Thumbelina, The Land Before Time, and All Dogs Go to Heaven. It was released on July 10, 1994 by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment. Plot The story begins in an area known as the "Kingdom of Trolls", where a troll named Stanley resides. Stanley has a magical green thumb that can make precious, beautiful flowers appear with a mere touch. Unfortunately, flowers are not allowed in the Kingdom of Trolls, forcing Stanley to hide any flowers he creates. In his house, Stanley speaks to his sentient flowers of his desire to complete his flower collection with a rose bush. That day, the other trolls become suspect of Stanley and take him to Gnorga, the Queen of the Trolls. Upon analyzing Stanley, Gnorga concludes that Stanley gives a bad name to trolls everywhere and demands that he be turned to stone. However, her husband consort, Llort, suggests that they instead banish Stanley to "a place of rock and steel where nothing grows". Gnorga immediately complies and sends Stanley off to Central Park. After many mishaps in New York, Stanley hides himself under a bridge. Meanwhile, in a Manhattan apartment, two children named Gus and Rosie get ready to have some fun with their father at Central Park, but he tells his son that he has a trial he's preparing for in a court, much to Gus's anger. Gus then asks his mother to take him, but she tells him that she's going to an open house on Park Avenue today. Both Alan and Hilary said goodbye and leave Gus and his baby sister Rosie with their nanny, Maria. Eventually, Gus quietly leaves the apartment, taking Rosie on his wagon with him to Central Park. While playing with Gus's toy boat, the kids accidentally find Stanley hidden in the cave under the bridge in Central Park, and he befriends them. When Gus tries to force Rosie to come home with him, Rosie begins to cry, which attracts the attention of Queen Gnorga. When she discovers that Stanley isn't miserable, she puts a spell on Gus that causes him to cry a raging sea to drown them all. Stanley saves the kids and himself by using his green thumb to turn Gus's toy motorboat into a larger boat for the trio and the talking flowers to ride in. Queen Gnorga decides to destroy Stanley's happiness once and for all by obliterating Central Park with a rampant tornado. As Rosie and Gus decide to go home upon discovering the destruction, Gnorga arrives to kidnap Rosie. Gus goes to Stanley and begs him for help, but Stanley claims that he is no match for Gnorga's magic. Gus angrily accuses Stanley of being too scared to fight Gnorga and tells him that he will never have a dream come true if he's too scared to fight for what he believes in. Gus leaves to face Gnorga, along with several talking flowers and animals who have turned their backs on Stanley for his cowardice. Gus finds and frees Rosie from a kennel. Gnorga discovers Gus and transforms him into a troll while Rosie runs away and accidentally falls into a gorge, much to Gus's dismay. However, Stanley returns and uses the flying boat to save Rosie. Stanley steps forward and faces off with Gnorga in a thumb-wrestling match, which ends with Stanley getting the upper hand and causing roses to sprout on Gnorga's body. As Stanley, Gus and Rosie escape, Gnorga makes a last-ditch effort and takes control of Gus's thumb, using it to turn Stanley into stone. Gus and Rosie are thrown back into their apartment as the petrified Stanley is jettisoned into a garbage can. Gnorga declares her victory before it doesn't last long as she fully transforms into a rose bush, much to her discomfort. Gnorga, Llort and her dog are sent away from New York by the same tornado, and by this undoing, it turns Gus back into a human. The next day, Gus, Rosie and their parents go to the obliterated Central Park, where Gus and Rosie place the Stanley statue on a makeshift pedestal. Gus briefly uses the green thumb he earned from his time as a troll and presses it against Stanley to seemingly no effect. As they leave, they turn around to find the troll revived and jolly as ever. Restored to life, the troll revives Central Park and turns New York into a beautiful green city, singing about his vision of the earth if everyone were to care for it. Scrooge gets money from everyone of New York. Meanwhile, Llort has been made the new Troll King after Gnorga's transformation into a rose bush, the Troll Kingdom is finally made happy again, and the dog is more free to bite Llort than ever. Cast of characters McDuck household *'Scrooge McDuck' - The richest duck in the world and the main protagonist, Scrooge is constantly seeking ways to further increase his wealth (his favorite pastime appears to be treasure hunting), and to avoid losing it. The only thing Scrooge values more than money is his family. Voiced by Alan Young. *'Huey Duck, Dewey Duck, and Louie Duck' - Identical triplets, and Scrooge's grand nephews. Usually clothed in identical outfits that only differed in color—each of the three wore a specific color. All voiced by Russi Taylor. **'Huey Duck' (red clothes) - Huey serves as the general leader of the trio and is very skilled at playing marbles. **'Dewey Duck' (blue clothes) - Dewey is arguably the most clever of the three and sometimes fills in the role of leader over Huey. **'Louie Duck' (green clothes) - Louie is probably the most creative thinker of the bunch and more laid-back than his brothers. *'Webbigail "Webby" Vanderquack' - Female child who secretly wants to be accepted as the fourth "nephew". She resembles a very young Daisy Duck. Voiced by Russi Taylor. *'Mrs. Bentina Beakley' - Maid/Nanny of the household, and maternal grandmother to Webby. Voiced by Joan Gerber in the cartoon and Wendee Lee in DuckTales: Remastered. *'Duckworth the Butler' - Scrooge's longtime, no-nonsense butler/chauffeur. Despite having "Duck" in his name, Duckworth is actually an anthropomorphic dog. He worked for Scrooge even before the nephews moved in. He is also Scrooge's chauffeur and errand boy on occasion. Duckworth used to be Scrooge's only household servant until Scrooge hired Mrs. Beakley. He usually appears as a supporting character. His only starring roles on the show were Duckworth's Revolt and Take Me Out of the Ballgame. He first appeared in the pilot episode of DuckTales. Duckworth is a jack-of-all-trades in the McDuck mansion, making him an important member of Scrooge's staff. Voiced by Chuck McCann. *'Bubba the Caveduck' - a young caveduck that Scrooge adopted in the second season of the show. He stowed away in Gyro's Time Machine. After the introduction of Gizmoduck later in the second season, the character was dropped from the series almost entirely. Voiced by Frank Welker. *'Tootsie the Triceratops' - Bubba's pet Triceratops who stowed away with Bubba. *'Launchpad McQuack' - Scrooge's pilot. An able flyer, Launchpad can scarcely set a plane down without a massive crash, yet has survived numerous crashes without injury; he is also easily capable of aerial feats bordering on the impossible. As shown in "The Golden Goose (Part II)," he can actually land a plane safely. Later appeared on Darkwing Duck. Voiced by Terry McGovern. *'Gyro Gearloose' - An inventor who often works for Scrooge, designing anything from relocation rays ("The Money Vanishes") to time machines ("Time Is Money"). Despite being duped once in a while by the Beagle Boys, Gyro is generally extremely clever and resourceful. Often his inventions help drive an episode's plot, as they do not always work as designed—when anyone besides Gyro attempts to use them! However, the relocation ray does work too well for the Beagle Boys in "The Money Vanishes," as they trick Scrooge into spraying his money for a nonexistent bug. Huey, Dewey, and Louie end up saving the day using the same ray. Voiced by Hal Smith in the cartoon and Chris Edgerly in DuckTales: Remastered. *'Fenton Crackshell', also known as Gizmoduck - Scrooge's accountant (as himself) and personal bodyguard (as Gizmoduck), hired by Scrooge in the show's second season. He can count at a blazing speed, but he generally is incompetent with almost everything else. Furthermore, his regular dogged attempts to rectify his mistakes tends to make things worse until he ultimately succeeds. He exhibits a remarkably different personality in his role as Gizmoduck, as his high-powered suit gives him courage to make daring decisions and act as a strong leader and a hero. Makes a few guest appearances on Darkwing Duck. Voiced by Hamilton Camp in the cartoon and Eric Bauza in DuckTales: Remastered. Characters of the film *Dom DeLuise as Stanley: a good-natured troll and the protagonist. Gifted with the ability to create flowers, thanks to a literal "green thumb", he is exiled to Central Park for this. There, he befriends Gus and Rosie, and protects them from Gnorga, though he fears her. *Phillip Glasser as Gus: a human and the deuteragonist. Angry that his parents are too busy to play with him, he and his sister Rosie go to Central Park. There they meet and befriend Stanley, and battle Gnorga, who briefly turns Gus into a troll. It's this experience that apparently gains Gus the same powers as Stanley. *Tawny Sunshine Glover as Rosie: the tritagonist. Gus' toddler sister, she discovers Stanley first and befriends him. When Gus tries to take her away, her crying gets Gnorga's attention. Rosie is eventually kidnapped by Gnorga, but is saved by Gus and Stanley. *Cloris Leachman as Gnorga: the main antagonist. The incredibly cruel, flower hating queen of the trolls, she has the ability, among others, to turn people to stone. She exiles Stanley for creating flowers, figuring he'll suffer. She later learns that this isn't the case, and sets out to destroy him, kidnapping Rosie and Gus in the process. Stanley eventually defeats her by turning her into a rose bush. *Charles Nelson Reilly as Llort: the secondary antagonist. Gnorga's bumbling husband, he'll do anything to keep his hot-tempered wife from getting angry. He is the one that suggests that Stanley be banished instead of turned to stone. When they later learn that Stanley's enjoying himself, he is forced along in her plan to defeat him. They kidnap Gus and Rosie, but Stanley defeats Gnorga, leaving Llort to run the kingdom. A running gag in the film involves Llort being attacked by Gnorga's dog. *Jonathan Pryce and Hayley Mills as Alan and Hilary: Gus and Rosie's parents. When we first meet Gus and Rosie, the former is getting ready to go to Central Park. Sadly, Alan, a lawyer, has to go to a case, and Hillary, a businesswoman, is also busy, leading to the kids' involvement in the story. The parents, completely unaware of the adventure, return and take the two to the destroyed Central Park the next day. Gus revives Stanley (who was turned to stone during the final battle with Gnorga), who brings the park back to life. Whether or not the parents see Stanley is unknown. Songs *DuckTales Theme (opening) - Mark Mueller *Queen of Mean - Gnorga *Absolutely Green - Stanley & Flower Chorus *Welcome to my World - Stanley & Flower Chorus *Absolutely Green (ending) - Stanley & Flower Chorus Reception The film met with extremely poor performance at the box-office, only grossing $71,368 domestically (with a budget of $23 million it grossed less than 0.33% of its budget), making it Don Blut]'s lowest-grossing film to date (though not his film to lose the most money overall). Gary Goldman has said the reason for this was because the film was released without any sign of promotion and release was limited. He also stated that its distributor Warner Bros. did not have any confidence in the film. It currently has score of 0% at Rotten Tomatoes based on five reviews. The film's score among the website community is higher, at 49%. The Nostalgia Critic gave an extremely negative review of the film. He says that just hearing the title ticks him off. He has dubbed the movie "Don Bluth's worst film". Refrences in other Media In a comedy sketch in a 2001 episode of Saturday Night Live, Alec Baldwin played Charles Nelson Reilly in a parody of the show Inside the Actor's Studio. During the course of the sketch, host James Lipton (as played by Will Ferrell) comments on how he loved A Troll in Central Park — he says watching it "is like looking into the face of God and seeing him smiling back, saying: 'You are my most wondrous creation'" — and asks if he can "speak to King Llort". Reilly accommodates by holding index cards to his ears and saying: "Well, hello, James Lipton! I'm King Llort! There's a troll in Central Park! I'm King Llort!". Category:Don Bluth films Category:Movies Category:Non-Disney films Category:Warner Bros. animated films